Let Me Get This Straight

A report released today says the unemployment rate will stay above 9% all year and probably wouldn't rebound until 2011. The five largest banks are on the hook for at least $587 billion in derivatives, just at the moment, with no sign of recouping any of that if the economic climate worsens. There hasn't been a positive economic number in weeks, if not months.

And yet Vikram Pandit can write an internal memo saying his own business is doing fine, the way CEOs have done approximately forever (name the last time you heard a CEO ever say "We're in the toilet. I suck"), and that's all it takes to send the stock market up?

These are the days where I question everyone on Wall Street's sanity.